


My Prince of Silk

by eyelessbaby



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, Brotp, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Male Friendship, Romance if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 05:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20334937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyelessbaby/pseuds/eyelessbaby
Summary: Niles and Leo's first meeting || Niles is caught by the guards of the castle after attempting to  steal away some of the royal jewels || He faces his conscience and the spider that has come to prey on him





	My Prince of Silk

“There’s a break-in in the left wing! Everyone at attention!” The bustling of chain-mail followed as all the guards in the vicinity flocked to the scene. Their shouts and clanking were muffled behind stone walls and slowly faded as they passed by the library. The young lord sighed, closed this book, and stood up. Gripping at his cloak as he huffed off, he made his way to the scene.

“Prince Leo!” A guard remarked in astonishment at hearing the steady click of heels approaching. To think that the young prince had abandoned his studies to come all this way for something so menial was rare. He turned attention to face his young lord, sweat dripping down his forehead. As the young prince kept walking forward, the guard spoke up once more. “Nothing to concern yourself with, my lord. Just a trifle matter of a petty thief. We have it under control, I assure you.”

The prince kept approaching the ring of guards that surrounded the intruder. As soon as Leo spoke softly to the guards, the chain-mail shuffled as the guards parted to make way for the prince. There, on the floor in front of him, sat a single man, beaten and slumped over— eyes to the ground. His shaggy silver hair hung in his face as he rested on his hands and knees as if he just caught himself from falling to the ground. Leo sternly clicked his heels on the stone floor below.

“Your majesty… ” Another guard startled at the young lord’s sudden appearance. With the young prince’s eyes boring into him, he pulled back his hand from the intruder before laying another metal glove across the intruder’s already swollen draw. The guard dropped his arm to his side. 

“Let me take care of this,” the young lord spoke up.

“But— My lord!” 

Leo took a few steps forward to stand over the intruder. When the prince stopped in front of him, the broken thief dared to look up from the cold stone floors. There was a noticeable slight smile on the man's lips, unfaltering even as blood dripped from his forehead. All of the intruder’s exits had been cut off long ago, and there was no chance of escape, especially not in this state. He had nothing to be smiling about.

“Trapped in a web as the spider approached his prey,” the lowly thief narrated as he watched the prince approached, draped in delicately woven silk and sparkling gems that gleamed like a spider’s red eyes.

It seemed the prince had nothing to say to a lowly thief like himself, and the thief's eyes fell to the ground once more. The blood that dripped from all of his cuts and scrapes began to pool on the cold stone floor that he knelt on. He watched the red spill over and streamed into the crevasses in between the rocks. As he stared at the blood, as it strung along and seemed to form a web of blood until each thread ended by being stopped and trapped in one of the crevasses, he could feel the cold of the stone seeping in through the thin fabric of his trousers and from the skin of his palms. It snuck up on him and made his whole body shiver.

“There’s been a sort of misunderstanding,” the thief sat back on the stone and shrugged out his arms half-heartedly as if they were weighed down by heavy chains. “The men you’re looking for already left. Pockets full of jewels. Check mine. I have nothing.”

Leo nodded to a guard who grabbed roughly at the thief and turned his pockets inside out. Nothing. 

“See!” The thief supplied with that grin coming back full force. “I’m not denying that I am indeed a petty thief, but I’m not the one you’re after. I was abandoned when things got tough. Those are the real criminals, don’t you think? So heartless.”

The guard grunted in disappointment and threw the man back on the floor when he realized that he truly had nothing of value on him. Event he scrap of fabric that was used to cover one of his eyes was tattered and dirty. “Shut up! Don’t talk to the prince that way,” the guard scolded. He smacked him hard across his beaten face, a red mark left bleeding on his cheek. The thief held back a yelp of pain, but that’s not what the guard wanted. He wanted to hear the scum scream. As the guard lifted his hand to hit him again, determined to keep going until he learned some respect, the soft grasp of Leo’s small hand came to stop the guard’s wirst. 

“Stand down.”

“But my lord.”

“_ Stand down. _ I said I would handle this.” Leo took a few steps forward and his feet stopped right beside his splayed out fingers that pressed against the stone.

The thief sat between them, watching, unsure if he should brace himself once more, waiting to be hit mercilessly again and again, if it was going to end swiftly, or if he was going to be left to rot in the cold dungeons. His knees pressed against the cold stone floors of the castle, painfully so. He could feel every grain and rough bump of the stone. He wondered if the dungeons were made up of these same uncomfortable stones. The dread of the unknown was worse than any of the pain he had felt. At first when the guards caught him, he was able to keep up with them and take every punch that was thrown at him. It was thrilling. The pain reminded him why he did this, why it was important to stay hidden, but why it was also so exciting to get caught in the act. He wore all of his scars from his previous mishaps and encounters; he wore them with pride. But this time was different, these guards weren’t letting up on him, and he didn’t know what was coming next.

Now that the guards were called off by the prince, the thief became doubly unsure of his fate. He could feel the young prince’s eyes staring down at him. He could see him tapping those fine leather shoes in front of his fingers, as if they were threatening to crush his hands at any moment. It made him painfully aware of how others must have looked at him. Those cold cruel eyes that the prince stared down at him with felt unforgiving of all scum without discrimination. 

He swallowed and felt something stuck in his throat. Blood? He swallowed again to try and choke it back down. 

"If you're going to kill me, do it quickly,” He spoke out suddenly, tired of waiting. His voice didn’t waver, but his smirk was now beginning to waver. He tried to bring it back with force, to bring back his ego with a smile that could get worked up by any pain that someone had to throw at him. 

With each twitch of the corner of his smile, a warm bubble of blood formed and started to stream down his chin. "Your guards weren't so gentle with me."

His eyes squinted shut, clenched tight to hold back the anxieties of waiting. He couldn’t keep up the facade, nor did he have the strength to fight back. He wasn’t the closest he had even been to death; but for the first time, he feared his life was coming to an end. Why wouldn’t they just end it? He was caught by the kings-guard, attempting to rob the royal family! That was punishable by death, and yet, here he was, still holding on to life.

When there was no reply from the prince, he cried. It was uncontrollable. He didn't want to, but he knew he was at the end of his rope. "Kill me!" he shouted. "Why are you just looking at me?" His voice quavered as he spoke, but the prince could not see his face hidden behind that silver hair once again. “Kill me! Do it! You cowards!”

“Tell me your name,” Leo said. His voice was stern and there was no room for refusal. 

The thief hesitated._ Why? Why did it matter? _

“Niles,” he answered softly, his voice strained through heavy sobs that he tried to stifle. Regardless of his efforts, a few tears continued to stream down his cheek, staining his already beaten face.

With a hand to the prisoner’s cheek, Leo knelt down and lifted Niles’s face. Gripping tightly at his jaw with one gloved hand, he tore the tattered cloth from Niles’s eye to reveal a dark, empty pit stained with red and carelessly battered with fresh bruises. But this injury itself was older, he could tell from the wear and old signs of neglect and infection. _ How many stories this eye may have held, _he thought to himself. He had never seen anyone beg for their life in such a backwards way before. All he could see in Niles’s eye in that one moment was desperation and his will to live, and yet, he begged for death and attempted to provoke him and the guards. He wondered if Niles had been caught with jewels, what would have happened then? But he saw repentance in the depth of the man’s missing eye. 

“Pitiful,” Leo muttered to himself, but he was well aware that Niles could hear him. 

Niles only stared up at him in response; he was surprised at himself for his complete lack of a response. The socket where his eye used to be stung in the cool air around them. He was more surprised that the young prince wasn’t disgusted by the mere sight of it like most were; instead he stared at him head on in disappointment rather than disgust or fear. It was almost fatherly, and how strange coming from a young man like that. He took in a deep breath, one that ached deep in his pained ribs. The prince did not point a blade at him like the guards were, so surely, he’d be reasonable enough to talk things through. He had enough time to collect himself in the silence. “Ghastly, isn’t it?” Niles supplied through the silence. 

“Your actions have been,” Leo said. “But no, your eye isn’t so bad to look at. I’ve read of worse.”

A small smile appeared on Niles’s lips. _ What a rare thing to hear. What a rare sight to see. _ From up close, the stern eyes of the prince seemed to soften, his skin was pale, but his touch to his cheek was unexpectedly warm through the smooth silk fabric. For some reason, he expected it to bristle against his skin like that of an irritating bug or sting ice cold like untouched metal.

Most of the guards had gone silent now, stepping back and letting the young prince be. It was a shock to see him so determined to do this on his own. But why now when he usually preferred to bury himself in his books? What did he have to gain from dealing with a lowly thief? The guards were too taken aback to intervene, but their hands were ready to draw their swords at any time since the moment Leo knelt down and brought himself close to the dangerous prisoner. But the guards were dismissed before they could argue.

Niles felt a leap in his heart as the guards departed. Was it relief? Was it fear of what the prince was going to do away from prying eyes?

“Are you going to lecture me?” Niles asked lightheartedly, hoping that it was relief that he felt. “That is the cruelest torture.”

“No, not yet. There will be plenty of time for lectures later. From today on, you will become one of my retainers.”

All of the binds that had clung so tightly to Niles’s body fell away as Leo offered him his hand. Niles took the delicate hand, woven so tenderly with forgiveness and the richest silk. It was the warmest touch he had ever felt— he noted as he was dragged up from those dark cold depths that he had become so accustomed to. 


End file.
